“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” – Alan Kay

On more than one occasion, Apple has mentioned the above quote during their new product introductions. They are of the belief that by making both the hardware and the software, they can offer a superior product that better suits their users.

What that also means is that whenever Apple releases a new product, like they are doing this Friday with the iPhone 5, a bevy of software updates are also released at the same time to support the new products.

Below is a chart made using data from fixed access networks in the US that shows a comparison of iTunes and Mac App Store traffic from yesterday with that of the average levels of the previous two Wednesdays in September.

See that huge spike at 1:00PM EDT yesterday? That is when iOS 6 was officially released to the public. This massive increase in traffic was then sustained throughout most of the day, and actually escalated as people got home from work in the evening. This resulted in traffic from Apple’s servers yesterday being over 9 times their average traffic levels.

This huge volume of traffic was driven primarily by three things:

iOS6, Apple’s mobile operating system that powers their iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. Depending on device and download method this roughly 600-800MB in size

Mac OS 10.8.2, a service pack/maintenance release for Apple computers that supports many of the new features found in iOS6. This is approximately 300-400MB in size, depending on what computer you are using.

App updates for both first and third parties that support iOS 6 features and the new iPhone 5. These updates are also likely why traffic levels are slightly higher than the average before the 1:00PM iOS 6 release, as updates have been trickling out for the past few days.

As an iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro user, I know I personally downloaded over 2GB in updates yesterday alone.

This surge in traffic shouldn’t come as a surprise for network operators, as Apple users have a history of driving huge spikes in traffic on product launch days. Below is a chart showing one such spike when Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion launched in late July of this year.

I would expect to see elevated traffic levels to Apple’s servers in the coming days as more users continue to update their devices, but nothing will come close to what we saw yesterday, that is of course until Apple releases their next big thing.

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